


Welcome to the New World

by rivlee



Category: Spartacus Series (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-24
Updated: 2013-03-24
Packaged: 2017-12-06 08:56:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/733853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rivlee/pseuds/rivlee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spoilers for ep. 9 promo of <i>War of the Damned</i>. Nasir and Agron have a little chat about things. Will def. get Jossed (or DeKnighted) by episode 9.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Welcome to the New World

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to hold off on posting this until I had time to fit it into actual canon timelines and stories, but the world needs more Angry!Nasir fic. Points and hugs to everyone who gets the title/end line joke.

“Nasir,” Laeta called to him, “he is awake.”

Nasir mussed the hair of the boy who he was teaching in the ways of knives. He handed the weapon to Lugo, forever at his side and watching his back, who patted him on the shoulder as he passed. He paused a moment before he pushed open the flaps of the tent. He needed to gather himself, to force his shaking hands to still, to act the leader that circumstances had now made him. Respect for Agron, and his long service at Spartacus’ side, had seen him granted the luxury of his own tent as he recovered. Nasir had spent his nights sleeping on the floor, behind the line of the sight of the ever still body, as he pondered his new place in this new world. 

Nasir had always valued himself on his ability to bury his emotions and dutifully serve his master, be it one by collar, by circumstance, or by choice. The only one who he’d ever broken such for was Agron. It was only after Nasir felt a sense of _safety_ with the others around him that he felt free to express anger and doubt; to dare question the orders of those they called their leaders; to voice his own opinion on matters. Even then, Nasir had often stilled his tongue. Silence had meant survival in his world for so long; he could not so easily shed such lessons as a snake shed its skin. His past months had been full of turmoil, and that tight grasp on his own words and emotions, kept locked inside himself where they could remain protected, safe, and his _own_ had dissolved. 

Nasir took a deep breath and pushed inside. Agron was sitting up, supported by bedrolls and balled up linens. His eyes were trained on the wrappings around his wrist. He sat a mess of healing injuries, dried blood, and scraggly bandages applied in haste. The red and purple bruise that colored his face was painful to look at; Agron, forever a symbol of strength and vitality, had been stomped under the nailed boots of Roman feet.

Kore met Nasir’s gaze. She rose without words exchanged, a brief pressing of hand to his arm in support, as she left them alone.

“You live,” Nasir said.

“Or the Afterlife has become more painful than I was told,” Agron said. The joke fell flat and Nasir, who had not wanted to spoil their last precious moments with harsh words again filling the air between them, finally lost his patience. 

“Expected for such injuries,” Nasir said. He sat on the edge of Agron’s bed, careful to not touch or nudge any of the healing wounds. He took another deep, shaky breath and let it out slowly. One more and then, finally, he let go. “Did you lose fucking mind?”

“I did what was best,” Agron said.

“No,” Nasir hissed. He leaned forward and pressed a hand against Agron’s mouth to stop the words that would surely spill out. “No, you’ve spoken your words. You’ve done nothing but speak your words, and make requests turn into demands. You fucking left _me_ behind, again. It was an understandable act when I still healed, or when I knew little of fighting, but I have spent months fighting at your side and without you near. Did you honestly think doing such a thing would spare me from death? From pain? From grief? Did you truly believe I could find peace never knowing what had happened to you? Since when does Agron make such decisions for Nasir? Since when does Agron play the role of the Fates? You may hold my heart, but you do not completely hold _me_.”

“Nasir,” Agron murmured against his fingers, but Nasir ignored the pleading in that tone and those eyes. This would be painful, for both of them, yet it must be said. It had been far too long since words, spoken in harsh truth, passed between them. Nasir knew he had honestly just begun to voice his complaints, and somewhere, be it in the Underworld, or wherever ghosts spent their days, Chadara was laughing at the both of them.

Nasir had stumbled into freedom and then into Agron’s arms. He barely knew what it meant to be _free_ when he found himself discovering what love meant for him. It had been a time when Nasir was flush with new emotions, with the heady power of being allowed to desire another without fearing the consequences. Nasir had spent the last year discovering just who he now stood as; the core of himself, that seed of Nasir that remained even when he lived as Tiberius, had never died, only withered for a bit. He had finally started to unveil the man he was meant to be and now, having stood without the familiar hands of Naevia, Agron, or Donar to support him, he had fully revealed just who that was.

He turned out to be a furious thing; quietly roaring at the world. He would apologize at the many he’d cut down with words once the fear let go long enough for rational thought to bleed back inside his mind. Ever since Naevia had been returned to them, half dead and muttering words of Crixus’ death, and Agron’s fall, Nasir had been running on pure, burning, bright, righteous fury.

And now, that he sat across from the man he knew he wanted at his side, wherever the road of life led him, he felt relief, joyous relief, even as he continued to rail at Agron.

“Do not think I do not understand your motivations. I know _you_ , you fucking fool. It was my own uncertainty that stilled my tongue and hands in those moments. All I could think was that, even as you claimed to still love me, you were not willing to fight for a chance of peace at my side.”

“That is not what I fucking meant,” Agron said. He forcibly pulled back from Nasir. “I have lost everyone held dearly to heart. You cannot ask me to see you pulled so from my grasp?”

“And what about me! _You_ can ask that of me? You get to fuck off into your Afterlife thinking you’ve done me a fucking _favor_ , by sending me off with an approving pat to my head and ordering me to wrest joy where I may find it? You have _no_ fucking clue what it is like to be the one left behind.”

“I lost Duro,” Agron said.

Nasir would not scoff; he would never disrespect the pain of that loss. “It is a different thing,” he said. “One you will have to learn now.” His lips trembled as the anger finally began to bleed out. “I lead a raid on Spartacus’ order. I suppose, this time _I_ go and you stay.” 

There were tears in his eyes, in Agron’s as well, as Nasir stood to leave. Fingers reached out and grasped Nasir’s wrist in a weak hold. Agron was not yet capable of a stronger one, and Nasir’s eyes were focused on the brownish spots of old blood staining the bandages. It was so close to ending, all of it, and there last sight of each other would have been one tiny nod. 

Agron looked up at him, weak and vulnerable in a way Nasir _knew_ he was only privy to. His lips and chin trembled. Nasir leaned down, stopping halfway, forcing Agron to make this decision.

“Whatever you decide next it will be final,” Nasir warned. “I will accept nothing less than it all.”

His breath still caught with the fierceness of Agron’s kiss.

“That is not how he will heal,” Laeta admonished. 

Nasir let Agron go, and smiled at the stunned look on his face. He turned to Laeta and took the spear she held for him. He looked at Agron over his shoulder, committing the sight to his memory in case it was his last.

“Welcome to the new world. May we enjoy it together.”


End file.
